Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Getting blown in Kansas

The wind here is about what I expected. One day it was 30 mph with major gusts and it took us 6 hours to go 60 miles, the very next day we covered 105 miles in the same time with a light, but nice tailwind. The land and views here are vast. It's horizon lines all around. Seeing so far makes you feel small, but being around a lot of nothing makes you feel like a big deal. It's a little weird.

The people here are really nice. Even the folks who give an unfriendly honk as they pass still give us half a lane. Most people that pass give the whole lane and everyone, I mean everyone, waves. We were let through a construction site today that would have meant a 10+ mile detour, but the workers were nice enough to let us by. Part of the road had been washed out, so we had to cross over a big sink hole on two narrow boards. As we unloaded and carried the bikes across a worker came over and told us about his bike trip across Kansas this year and that he hoped to do the TransAm route now that he's retired. We've met a lot of people on this trip who talk about touring experience that you wouldn't even figure rode a bike. They're always the most excited and the most fun to talk to.

We've finally gotten to the point in our tour that where we've been is a bigger deal than where we're going. Through Colorado the reaction was always, "You're riding where?" Now that we're more than half way we get a lot more, "You started where?" Either way most people are just amazed. When I think about living on a bike for 7 weeks and covering 2500 miles I'm kind of amazed. Touring is great!